Tag Archives: Drew Stubbs

So I was trying to start this preview off by harkening back to the last glory days of Cleveland in the mid 90’s so I searched for “Indians team picture 1997″, and this was one of the top results with no team picture in sight. I guess it is pretty fitting seeing as how this is a preview of a Cleveland sports team. Well…the Indians never could turn that talent in the mid 90s into a championship and haven’t come close since. There has been some serious talent come through Cleveland during that time including Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Grady Sizemore (pre-injury), Bart Colon, Victor Martinez, Brandon Pihillips, etc. I’m sure that lists grates at Cleveland fans thinking about what might have been. Well Cleveland spent the off season trying to fill the talent gap again and they’ve done a pretty good job at doing so.

So what did they do?

Major Off-Season Moves:

Signed OF Michael Bourn

Signed OF/DH Nick Swisher

Acquired OF Drew Stubbs via trade from Reds

Acquired SP Trevor Bauer in same trade from Diamondbacks

Signed 1B/3B Mark Reynolds from Orioles

Signed SP Brett Myers

No one can accuse Cleveland of resting on their laurels this off season. Although their laurels weren’t that good, so why would anyone rest on them. Whoa…that last sentenced confused me – ignore it please. They signed two serious impact free agents in Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. Teams were shying away from Micahel Bourn because of the new draft pick compensation rules for free agents and I think an underlying concern that his legs will begin to deteriorate and his game along with it. As it stands now he’s a great CF and one the best on the bases in the majors. Nick Swisher has never had a star label but his consistently produces at a good clip. Drew Stubbs and Trevor Bauer were two young players who needed changes of scenery. Although as we pointed out in our Diamondbacks preview, the Bauer one doesn’t make sense. Mark Reynolds and Brett Myers are veteran plugs that the Indians needed to fill out their rosters.

When the Cincinnati Reds dropped the home stand opener 11-5 to the San Diego Padres last night in Cincinnati, it ended their 10-game winning streak that began with a 7-6 win over Arizona in Cincinnati on July 19th.

I think it was the longest winning streak for the Cincinnati Reds since this blog has been in creation. It took then from tied for first place in the standings to 3 games in the green on the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Reds did it all without the help of their main offensive force, Joey Votto. Even with last night’s loss the Reds are 20 games over .500, which also seems like another benchmark worth mention.

If this band of Reds go on to win the National League Central Division Championship for the second time in three seasons; or reach uncharted territory like the NLCS, this will be the stretch that everyone should remember. They did it with pitching, great defense, and timely hitting. It wasn’t about the three-run homer in the small park, as so many thought Reds baseball would be predicated upon. In fact, the Reds hit five solo shots in their final win on the streak in Colorado.

Other than Drew Stubbs, Ryan Ludwick was probably the hero of the entire streak. He’s seen his OPS hulk up to .849 at the end of last night’s play. That’s ahead of Jay Bruce (.828) and Brandon Phillips (.788) by a healthy margin.

I’m in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My buddies are headed to the park tonight to watch Homer Bailey and the boys attempt to start a new streak. I have to admit, even with the beach out my window I am a little bit envious. The MLB.tv feeds here are very spotty at best. I’ve been forced to follow the Reds via 700 WLW. Last night the crowd sounded rowdy. With two full months of baseball left, the Reds have made a baseball town fall in love again. What a life we are living in such a place.

Anyone who has spent time following the Reds since 2010 knows the immense frustration and hopelessness that Drew Stubbs has provided us with. The roller coaster ride really settled this year and the thought was no longer about Stubbs not reaching the supposed superstardom some scouts saw possible when he was drafted in the 1st round out of Texas.

Reds fans simply wondered if this guy was going to be DFA’d, benched, or worse; continue to play regularly and end up hitting .210 for year.

I’m not sure if Drew Stubbs has collected two bigger hits than the two he’s had in the 9th inning the last two nights off his former teammate Francisco Cordero. Stubbs is a microcosm of what makes the 2012 Reds so great: they get it done ugly at times but they more often than not get it done.

Even if Stubbs never develops into the All-Star that so many of my friends who like the Reds thought he would be (my buddy who coaches regularly refers to Stubbs as a “high-ass”. It’s a coaching term.) he’s provided us with a few clutch moments in situations of high drama. That’s an ingredient that every championship caliber team needs.

My expectations with Stubbs became tampered long ago after I had seen him wave through three pitches quicker than I could fetch ice cubes for my drink. But I still think the guy can be a key cog in the wheel of the 2012 Reds, which is all we really need him for anyways.

Jay Bruce clobbered his 17th home run of the season off Marco Estrada, who had lights out (12 K’s) stuff. This was culminated by Bronson Arroyo throwing 7-innings of no-hit ball. I started to think about the last time the Reds threw a no-hitter. I started getting into every pitch. Then Arroyo walked a guy. Then a double took away the no-hitter after 7 and 1/3. Then the Reds lost the lead in a matter of moments.

But the Reds were destined to win this one. Any time the Reds play at home and get a big home run from Bruce, along with a quality pitching performance and win, I’m extremely happy. And we’re at that part of the summer where baseball takes center stage. This is when you want your team to at least peak for the primary time. The days are long and hot, so you might as well mark the calendar date with as many W’s as you can.

The Reds got a little bit of everything you want to see in a 6-1 Friday night win at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Jay Bruce, Drew Stubbs, and Zach Cozart all homered. The rest of the guys added five additional extra-base hits. Johnny Cueto went the distance to improve to 4-0 on the season, striking out four and walking no one.

The Cardinals lost to the Astros last night 5-4 in Houston. Now the Reds have a chance to get a couple games above the .500 mark and begin a winning-streak on Cinco De Mayo Saturday. What more could you ask for? They must win at all costs today whether that win come ugly or pretty like last evening. The Reds just have to keep rolling.

It’s Cinco De Mayo. It’s a great holiday. In honor of the day that Adam Dunn always seemed to hit bombs on, we present to you the only batter walk-up song that Dunn used during his time in Cincinnati: a little Night Ranger. And maybe, just maybe; Dunn will go deep today in Detroit.

But I was wrong. I felt like the Reds had three key at-bats in the bottom of the first-inning that were game altering. Zach Cozart opened the game up with a 10-pitch showdown against Cain, and although he flew out to short; the Reds had opened up Cain for head shots with a few nice early body blows from their lead-off hitter. I’ll say it again, these are the type of at-bats that win you ballgames at the onset.

Drew Stubbs doubled, and after Joey Votto struck out Brandon Phillips had another battling type at-bat that resulted in a two-run home run. The Reds were off to the races and a bonus came later in the inning because Jay Bruce and Scott Rolen got Matt Cain to throw even more pitches.

It’s impossible to get these professional at-bats game in and game out. But picked a good pitcher to do this against. You don’t need these kind of at-bats to beat the Barry Zito’s of the world or the Randy Wells’. Matt Cain doesn’t make that first inning mistake to Phillips that landed in the Cincinnati bullpen unless you grind on him like the Reds did. Notice that he settled in and was basically unscathed for the rest of his outing.

The Reds great perseverance in their at-bats also still called for a couple of big pitches by Mat Latos. With the bases juiced, he lured the red-hot Nate Schierholtz to ground out with the bases loaded. That opened the door for the Reds to shoot up the San Francisco Giants like the Alamo.

I texted a couple of my buddies who share my love/hate with the Reds with me yesterday while perusing the box score. The Reds had closed out a key 6-3 win in their house of horrors against a hot St. Louis Cardinals team. They had lived to fight another day. The season wasn’t over, yet. Bronson Arroyo came up big as he has in the past on a day where you had to have a win, only allowing a three-run bomb to Matt Holliday.

The usual crew of Brandon Phillips, Joey Votto, Drew Stubbs, and Jay Bruce had a say in the win.

“You know what kind of teams play to avoid sweeps? Bad ones,” my friend responded to my text. I guess he isn’t optimistic like I am. But I quickly texted him back–I have a feeling that the Reds will go into Sunday with a chance to sweep the Cubbies this weekend–and if they do all will be right with the world again.

You can’t sweep a team until you win one. The Reds can’t go on a winning streak until they win this afternoon at Wrigley behind Homer Bailey. It’s got to happen first.

I didn’t get to see the first business day special of the year, because I was doing business. The Reds avoided getting swept by their division rivals after getting in a 3-0 hole thanks to a Jon Jay home run off Johnny Cueto.

Cueto didn’t have his best stuff it seemed, but he kept the Reds in the game over the course of five toughly contested innings. He did play the role of stopper, not allowing anything beyond the three runs the Cardinals were able to muster early against him.

I knew this type of game was coming from Joey Votto. Call it the first signature game of the Votto $225 million dollar contract era, but Votto doubled a couple of times and singled a couple of times, and his average rose to the mid-.300’s. What’s crazy to think about is if he’s going right his average won’t dip below .300 again this season.

It seemed that Votto and Wilson Valdez, Zach Cozart and Drew Stubbs willed the Reds back into this one; along with phenomenal efforts in the bullpen from Jose Arredondo and Aroldis Chapman.

The Reds evened their record at 3-3 after six games, two behind St. Louis and one behind Milwaukee. There’s a long ways to go but things could have been a lot worse on the first homestand.

This was the type of win that builds chemistry when the season is still young. It was a huge victory for the Reds, pushing the Marlins out of town when they should have lost the opening series of the season.

I returned from Easter brunch in time to see Jay Bruce hit his game tying opposite field home run off Heath Bell. Drew Stubbs added an infield single. The Reds started to pile on the pressure on Bell and the Marlins. Hanigan singled to the opposite field and Stubbs advanced to third.

I was never really concerned with this bunch. Even if they had lost today, I’m not concerned. If they lose five games in a row after this–I still have a relaxed sense that at some point the wins are coming. And when Scott Rolen pinch hit and drove a ball hard to third base, Jose Reyes couldn’t field it cleanly. Stubbs scampered home, and the Reds had themselves against a quality opponent.

Marlins exit stage left–they took a nice piece of us last night–but we let Mike Stanton come to town and didn’t surrender any bombs. Statement win on Opening Day followed by letdown loss and finished up with a character and chemistry building win on Easter Sunday.

How about Jay Bruce? He’s never gotten off to a start like this. To see him using all of the field and put a swing on a Bell fast ball on the outer half like he did was no accident–whereas last season when Bruce went the other way with a pitch it looked forced or by mistake. Bruce hit a ball that got caught in the jet stream. The swing looked a little bit like Joey Votto off first glace. The Reds don’t win today without Bruce’s game-tying blast.

Pats on the back go to Zach Cozart, Aroldis Chapman (nice ‘W’ in two scoreless innings of relief), and DatDudeBP for his 1000th hit as a Cincinnati Red.

Bring on the damn Cardinals tomorrow night and let’s get this rivalry going again. We’re going to put a whuppin’ on that ass.

As part of our preview for the upcoming 2012 season, we’ll be doing a 10 Bold Predictions for 2012 series that will be featured between now and Opening Day. Our fifth installment of this prediction series is that the Cincinnati Reds are one of two NLCS representatives in 2012.

There’s people out there that won’t want to believe me–but my wife will serve as my witness on this (she would NEVER lie for me). I have been talking about the 2012 Cincinnati Reds making a possible World Series run for several years now.

The night my wife will remember me saying it was when the outs were starting to melt away in that NLDS game three versus the Phillies back in 2010. As I sat there in the last row of the stadium with her, I said “we’re really going to get swept. It’s really going to end like this”. I was right. The Reds got shutout by Cole Hamels on a night when he had his best stuff. But I made a prediction I have felt so strongly about for so long.

“Mark my words, this team will be back. They’ll miss out on the playoffs in 2011 and then they’re going to come roaring back and go after the whole thing in 2012. That’s been the year all along: 2012″.

Now, because she’s a woman and things like that aren’t important to her she wouldn’t be able to recite my exact prediction. But she can attest to the fact that her husband has never felt more strongly about something happening in sports than the Cincinnati Reds impending 2012 run to the World Series. This is because I’ve also reminded her countless times over the last year.

And I’ve hedged my prediction some. I don’t think they’re going to the World Series. Our season predictions won’t go up until next week on this site but I still don’t fully know who this mystery opponent who will knock off the Reds in the 2012 NLCS will even be yet. But someone’s knocking them off. All I know is they’re going to get that far, and they’re not going to make the World Series. And I feel like it’s going to be in six games that the NLCS lasts. Just enough so that you have some hopes and dreams of the Reds really playing for the whole thing. But they’re going to fall tragically short like all of our heroes eventually do. And that’s because they’re my team. That’s why they’re not going to the World Series. But mark my words, before this thing gets completely blown up and the Reds nucleus as you know it is disbanded, they’re going to take you on a ride that you haven’t been on in a long, long time.

I love the make up of this roster. I think there are any number of players who could go from respectable Major League professionals to star pretty easily because they have the pedigree and I think they’ve got the ability to truly be more than solid. Many of these guys moved up through the minor league system together and have grown up as ballplayers together. The chemistry in this organization with this group of players is not overstated as it so often is around baseball. These guys like each-other and have a strong clubhouse. They’ve also all reached that ‘peak ‘and ‘prime’ age around the same time. When you get several guys who have career years together you see teams come out of nowhere and take off.

Last year was absolutely painful for my heart and huge hit to my mental health at times. Just writing on this blog each day was a challenge because I was lamenting the fact it was baseball season as the Reds floundered their way through 162. Sometimes in baseball that just happens. And sometimes in life things happen for a reason that you never come to understand. And the reason the Reds of 2011 were so bad was so that they could fly under the radar in 2012. The baseball Gods made me purge my joys last season so that it could be a summer long party in 2012.

Aside from the Reds being able to once again sneak up on some teams quietly–something they lacked the ability to do from game one in 2011–it’s been the perfect storm off-season with some of the things that have happened. Let’s examine some of the things that have taken place that are going to allow the Reds to make a run in 2012:

Reds trade for Matt Latos. Alright, he’s not an ace in my opinion yet. But it’s another lottery ticket thrown in the raffle of guys who could be aces for the Reds. And I still see Cueto, Bailey, and now Latos as guys who could have that type of ‘stopper’ season for the Reds. Give me the ball on day five and let me go get you a ballgame and end this slide or keep this streak going.

Albert Pujols leaves the Cardinals for the Angels. Why don’t you do me a favor, look up what Albert Pujols did against the Reds over his career (Actually, let me do that for you. 172 GP, .350, 46 HR, 143 RBI, 10 steals/zero caught stealing, 92 BB, 50 K’s, .430/.641/1.072). Look, I’ll miss seeing the guy’s pure talent a few times a summer, but let’s get serious I can do without him making me miserable in the form of game winning grand slams and such. AL West foes, you enjoy that.

Prince Fielder signs with the Detroit Tigers. Maybe the second greatest offensive lethal weapon in the National League, and he’s leaving the NL Central too! Now this is just gravy. People forget he’ll just be 28 years old this season, he is in his prime years and he will still torture pitching staffs for about 4 or 5 more seasons before he’s ‘getting old’ or no matter how big that spare tire gets.

Ryan Braun is suspended for PED use for 40 games. Yea. Shit. Damn you formality. This would have been the nail in the Brewers coffin, trust me. They lucked out here.

Chris Carpenter is out 3 to 4 months with a bulging disk. Chris Carpenter scares me. He’s fiery, he eats innings, you can hang a few runs on him in the first inning of a game and then he one hits you the rest of the way. He’s the type of catalyst ace that few guys around the big leagues truly are. This is a huge void for the Cardinals. And I found out they’re going to Opening Day start Kyle Lohse. A man doesn’t deserve such a life of luxury folks. I am that man.

Adam Wainwright returns from Tommy-John surgery.People want to talk about Wainwright being the sleeper of the year. Look, he’s good and I have no doubts he’ll return to his previous levels of performance. But give me one guy who came back and was his dominant old self his first half season back from Tommy-John surgery. There aren’t any. Reds luck out again here. I’m still warm and fuzzy inside with memories of that February day last year.

Theo Epstein got his hands on the Cubs a bit too late. Theo will turn the Cubbies around but it’s going to take time. Are they still employing the likes of Ryan Dempster and Alfonso Soriano? Bryan LaHair at first base? It’s going to be a fun season of making fun of Cubs fans again.

The Phillies are a mess. I expect a regression from Cliff Lee. Roy Halladay has been nothing if not touch and go this spring. Jimmy Rollins is getting old. Chase Utley is hurt. Ryan Howard is hurt. The Phillies do not scare me. Not in the slightest.

The Reds sign Sean Marshall. This guy is like the nastiest lefty in baseball. He’s not gonna crap out like Ricky Rincon did when the Indians went out and tried to make a splash in getting a nasty lefty to bolster a great pen. He’s going to get first dibs on the closer role, and I think he’s going to have a fine audition.

I could keep going, but these are all things that have made it a wonderful off-season towards building my case for the Reds run to the 2012 NLCS.

We led off the prediction series by telling you that Jay Bruce was going to be the 2012 MVP. But now for some of the unheralded guys who will pay off huge for the Redlegs in 2012. Chris Heisey, Homer Bailey, Ryan Ludwick, and the rebound of guys like Scott Rolen and Drew Stubbs will pay off for the Reds. Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto will play their usual role.

You look in the pen and the Reds have some serious firepower. Jose Arredondo is a year into his own Tommy-John recovery, and the Reds have Bill Bray, Nick Masset, Aroldis Chapman, Marshall, and some other very capable arms that will be down in that bullpen. They’re deep. Especially if Ryan Madson hadn’t gotten hurt. But we’re here to focus on why this prediction will come true.

The Reds are about to give you the finest season since 1990, if you can just make it until October. This is going to be the year and I want you to remember where you heard it. Just don’t expect too much ultimately. I’ll sign up for an NLCS run and take my chances from there right now.

The following photos were taken May 20th, when the Reds opened up Interleague Play with the Indians in Cleveland with a 5-4 loss to the Tribe.

Right at our arrival the Reds were taking some BP before the game.

Look at the size at that Cleveland Polish Sausage! My goodness! This is one of the best deals in baseball. It’s like $6.75, and if you get one of these before the game you will not be hungry again for the rest of the game.

The toothbrush stadium lights can mean only one thing: you’re in Cleveland at The Jake, baby.

Alex White, 2009 1st round pick (15th overall) by the Tribe making one of three starts that he made in 2011. He got hurt in this start and hasn’t been back since.

A pretty good look at the outfield at Progressive Field. Chris Heisey and Drew Stubbs are cast in this photo.

Bruce at bat against Alex White. He doubled off White and singled later in the game. He was the only Red with two hits on the evening.

This was a picture of the scoreboard and what was going on (shhhhhh) just moments before it was broken up by none other than……

Austin friggin’ Kearns. Hanging on, hanging around, average always below the Mendoza line but had enough left in him to get a huge hit against his former team and ruin Travis Wood’s no-hit bid.

This game had a playoff style atmosphere from the beginning. In a night of huge pitching match-ups around Major League Baseball (Cliff Lee/Josh Beckett, Tommy Hanson/Michael Pineda, among others) this one probably did the finest job of living up to the billing.

Johnny Damon’s solo home run off Johnny Cueto was the only mark that the Rays could muster against the Reds ace for the first seven innings. The Reds battled against David Price who was more than on his ‘A’ game, and got a triple off the center field wall by Drew Stubbs and then tied the game a batter later on an Edgar Renteria RBI single.

Later in the inning, Renteria stole second base on an 0-2 pitch to Joey Votto. Votto then doubled a few deliveries later to put the Reds up 2-1 and knock Price from the game.

Johnny Damon hit a pitcher’s pitch from Bill Bray into the shallow left center area that fell just out of the reach of Chris Heisey’s glove to give the Rays a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning.

The Rays then brought on their closer, Kyle Farnsworth in the top of the 9th inning. Farnsworth entered the game with a 1.99 ERA and 17 saves in 18 opportunities. That’s uncharacteristically good for Farnsworth, and as I told my friend that I was watching the game with ‘at some point the guy is going to play to the back of his baseball card, he’s due to blow a save’.

At some point, the Reds are going to have to stop doing this. They’re now 11-17 in one run ballgames. The summer is flying by, and these were victories that the Reds were collecting at this time last year. They now sit narrowly at one game over the .500 mark at the exact halfway point; and they trail the Milwaukee Brewers by 3.5 games in the NL Central. They’re now officially in 4th place with the Pirates taking over third.

Some might say that it’s only 3.5 games, and yes a big week from the Reds could have them knocking on the door of first place. But a poor week or even a poor two-week stretch could definitely put them out of things for good at this point. Every night is pivotal and the floundering Reds have everyone waiting on them to get hot and it just isn’t happening.

Big, big win for the Reds last night in Philadelphia. It was a win I just had the feeling they were going to go out and get. Somehow, some way, I just sensed that the Reds knew they had to take this one after losing six in a row and before facing Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

When Jay Bruce doubled off Ryan Madson with the bases juiced and sent all those fraudulent, wannabe tough-guys in Philly to an early exit at Citizens Bank Ballpark I was over-joyed.

Not only is Bruce getting hits that an MVP would get, but he got it off Madson; a guy who has been so tough this year. The thing I noticed about Madson is although he was throwing 95 on the gun, he was leaving pitches up in the zone. Bruce had a rough night against Vance Worley among others but he got a pitch that was up and out over the plate and the Reds winning streak was only something in the history books after one swing that sent a ball off the right-centerfield wall in Philly.

Props go out to Johnny Cueto for battling for six innings, and also to the bullpen guys like Billy Bray and Logan Ondrusek for keeping this game in a 3-3 tie until the Reds could load the bases and win the game.

-The Reds face Roy Halladay on ESPN tonight for the first time since his NLDS no-hitter. I have a funny feeling that the Reds will find a way to win tonight. They might not hang a loss on Halladay, but I think they’ll want to extract some revenge and they’ll come out with a nice gameplan of attack against the man with 18 different pitches.